In my research I’m aiming at the identification of novel bioactive molecules from natural sources, including marine invertebrates, marine microorganisms and terrestrial plants. The Red Sea is likely to be a rich resource for promising novel bioactive molecules and KAUST is the perfect place to explore this chemical diversity by a multitude of both, traditional and innovative new technologies. Moreover we seek to include terrestrial plants which have been used in traditional arab medicine for centuries. A major goal of my work is to establish a comprehensive proprietary bio-resource for various screening applications at KAUST.

A major focus of my work is set on viral pathogens which play a major role in human infectious diseases. Dengue virus, a mosquito-borne member of the flavivirus family causing severe clinical outcomes, is of great local as well as global importance. We are aiming to establish a comprehensive screening platform for this viral pathogen targeting several steps of viral replication. All work involving infectious virus will be carried out in BSL-3 laboratories at a partner institute in Germany. We are also planning to test our KAUST bio-resource for novel activities targeting the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) on a retrovirus screening platform at the Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen, Germany.
Moreover, I plan to develop new assay technologies for additional high priority drug targets in order to broaden the spectrum of available screening technologies at KAUST.

I graduated in virology with a diploma thesis on the hepatitis C virus (a member of the flavivirus family) and earned my PhD with a thesis on genetics of macroalgae from the High Arctic. In the following years I worked as a PostDoc on the establishment of a full-replication screening platform for HIV and the identification and characterization of novel antiretroviral activities. I participated in an industry-funded natural products project in the High Arctic and worked on several “marine” projects at the Great Barrier Reef, Red Sea, Caribbean, Arctic ocean and the North Sea.